Syrians flee to Lebanon

Between 1,000 to 2,000 refugees on Sunday fled the violence in Syria across the border and into northern Lebanon, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed.

Between 1,000 to 2,000 refugees on Sunday fled the violence in Syria across the border and into northern Lebanon, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed. "Between 1,000 and 2,000 (Syrians) are in the process of arriving in Lebanon, "said Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR deputy representative in Lebanon.

"The numbers will be clearer in the coming hours. This is what we know of our field teams and local authorities," he was quoted as saying. A Reuters correspondent on the Lebanese border said they could hear the bombing in the Syrian side, from the town of Kousair, which is located 12km from the border. The reporter said civilians, mainly women and children, fled their country to Lebanon.

Meanwhile, teams of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent Sunday began distributing humanitarian aid in a village near Homs. However, they have not been able to enter the Bab Amro district. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had received the green light from the Syrian authorities to operate in Bab Amro and hope to make this later Sunday. The opposition accuses the regime of Bashar al-Assad of delaying this humanitarian operation in order to prevent aid workers from witnessing the "massacres" that took place in the Sunni neighborhood since the ground assault by the Syrian army started three days ago.